COVER STORY FEBRUARY 2020
Regaining the
lost ground
with the rest
of the G7 may
take years
fantastic, until you want to try and find the nugget
of information that will help you do your job
better. From a productivity perspective, we have
too much data – we’re spending too much time
wading through it all and not enough providing
value to the organisation. All the time you are
searching for information or asking people to
interpret data is dead time.”
To illustrate this point, market intelligence
firm, IDC, says that on average, a worker spends
7.4 hours per week searching for information.
from the leadership, and
without management buying
into the change of work style,
you’re doomed to fail.”
As with any culture change,
Olivier Le Moal/stock.adobe.com
a move away from presenteeism
is most likely to fail in middle
management – referred to
Moloney as the “treacle layer.”
“Those at the top and the
bottom will easily see the
benefits, from a financial and
an ‘ease of work’ point of view,”
he says. “However, if a change
gets stuck in the treacle layer
and the culture of presenteeism
remains, productivity won’t
improve.”
Manufacturing, with its rigid
processes and output-driven
working environment, may not
be the obvious place for flexible
working and long weekends.
However, says Moloney,
manufacturers are better
placed than most to be able to
implement meaningful change.
“Manufacturers will already
have lean and process change
experts looking at maximising
each process,” he says. “It’s
not a huge leap to have them
look at improving productivity.
At our own factory in Telford,
the management spend a lot of
time getting feedback from the
shopfloor. They spend time in
quality circles to understand
where they can make changes
to increase productivity by
making people work smarter.
Improving productivity always
comes back to your listening
to your people. If you have a
motivated workforce, who can
see what’s in it for them, they’re
going to be very forthcoming in
terms of how they can change
things to make the organisation
more productive.”
Turning the tide
This could make for depressing
reading. Businesses are working
flat-out to produce as much
as possible, with streamlined
processes and lean supply
chains, and are now told that
they’re falling even further
behind. However, there are signs
that the tide may be turning
when it comes to productivity.
Last November, the CBI’s annual
conference led with the topic,
and saw politicians and business
leaders acknowledge that more
needs to be done. This is an
important step, says Moloney.
“Organisations like the CBI
can influence government and
influence legislators to try and
solve the problem,” he states.
“The solution will come from
better education and a desire
to change. As long as people are
talking about it, it will start to
resonate more and more.”
For Make UK’s Phipson, there
is no short-term fix. “We’ve got
to try and close the gap to other
countries again,” he warns. “We
haven’t got the ability to offshore
to any great lengths anymore,
so we have to concentrate on
improving skills and improving
the capital that we use. That
won’t happen overnight; we’re
talking decades. If you go around
factories, a lot of them are
under-capitalised or haven’t got
the latest equipment. That’s not
to say it’s all doom and gloom.
Many of our manufacturers
are still world-class. Boosting
productivity can be done, it’s
just a matter of getting the right
cost of capital.”
The signs, though, are there.
Boris Johnson made boosting
productivity a key pillar of his
election campaign, while the
Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has said
he wants to raise productivity
to help deliver annual UK GDP
growth of as much as 2.8%.
Whether any of this comes
to pass remains to be seen, of
course. However, one this is
certain: companies will have to
work extra hard to bridge the
productivity gap.
“Boosting productivity can
be done, it’s just a matter
of getting the right capital”
Stephen Phipson, chief executive, Make UK
Working smarter, not harder
The fact that we spend hours researching, and
are lagging so far behind other countries, may
make people jump to the conclusion that British
workers are lazy. This assumption couldn’t be
further from the truth, reassures Moloney. “We’re
working harder than ever,” he says. “The trouble
is, we’re just not working smartly enough. For
instance, there is a lot of talk at the moment
about shorter working weeks. The reality is
that you can have a three-day weekend, but the
downside is you’ve either got to work longer
hours on the remaining days – or work smarter.”
What constitutes ‘smarter’ working is a
managerial decision. Many managers assume
that if they can see their staff, it stands to reason
that they are providing value. This so-called
managing by presenteeism is a risky approach.
It’s much more sensible, says Moloney, to
measure outcomes. “The big challenge here,
however, is that many organisations will have
been set on presenteeism for too long, and the
culture change required to become meaningfully
more productive will be massive. Culture comes
22 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
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